Summary Thenumberofprevioushydrologicalstudiesconcerningwaterflowpathsintropicalmontanerainforest is small. However, due to the increasing pressure of deforestation and land usechangecomprehensiveknowledgeofthesenaturalecosystemsisneededifsustainablelandusestrategiesshouldkeepnegativeeffectsofhumanimpactsonwaterflowpathsaslowaspossible. In this context, present work addresses the identification, characterisation, andmodelling of water flow paths in soils of an undisturbed and landslide affected naturalAndean forest ecosystem in the south of Ecuador whose deforestation rate is one of thehighestinSouthAmerica.InaninvestigationareasituatedintheAndesofSouthEcuador,ingentlerslopesandaltitudesabove2100mASLmainlyStagnosolsandHistosolswithstagniccolourpatternandlowtonegligiblerockfragmentcontentprevail.Withincreasingaltitudetheabundanceofthesesoilsincrease,whilethepresenceofCambisolsandRegosolsismostpronouncedbelow2100mASLandclearlycorrelatedwiththeslopeangle.Therefore,thesesoilsweremainlyencounteredinsteeper,particularlylandslideaffectedsitesoftenresemblinga melange of fine soil and high contents of rock fragments. Aside the investigation of theinfluenceoftherockfragmentcontentonsoilhydrological&andphysicalparameterssuchasthe relationship between rock fragment content and saturated hydraulic conductivity of thesoil, present study aims particularly to investigate flow paths of water in soils of landslideaffectedandunaffectedhillslopes.Therefore,weemployedconventionalfield&andlaboratorymethods,dyetracerexperimentsincludinganappropriateimageprocessingtechnique,aswellasstatisticalmodels.Resultsshowthatbothrockfragmentcontentandbulkdensitycontrolsignificantly, but not largely the saturated hydraulic conductivity of the mineral soils. Dyetracer experiments and soil parameters document a deeper percolation in the landslideaffected hillslopes than in the landslide unaffected hillslopes, where we found preferentialflowinrootchannelswithlowsoilmatrixinteractionasdominantflowmechanism.Asurfacenearquasiimperviouslayeralongtheinterfacebetweentopsoilandsubsoillimitspercolationofthewatergivingtheprerequisitesofalateralshallowsubsurfaceflowalongtheinterfacebetweentopsoilandorganiclayer.Thisisinlinewithpreviousstudiesperformedinthesameinvestigation area which already proved indirectly the existence of this flow. However, innoneofthesestudiestheshallowsubsurfaceflowwasassignedtocertainslopeinclinationsoraltitudes.Duetoarecentlypublisheddigitalsoilmapandtheresultsweobtainedfromthelandslideunaffectedsites,weknowthatparticularlyinhillslopesoflessthan30°above2100mASLprerequisitesaregivenforspatiallyextendedshallowsubsurfaceflow.However,even iiftheseprerequisitesarenotevidentforthelandslideaffectedhillslopes,wecannotexcludethepossibilityofshallowsubsurfaceflowoccurrenceheresincesoilcoverofthesteepterrainisrelativelyshallowwhilerainfallishighthroughouttheyear.Therefore,andgiventhatkeyparameterssuchaspermeabilityofsubsoilandbedrock,interceptionandevaporationremainunclear or were investigated exclusively such as the spatial variability of the saturatedhydraulic conductivity, we conducted a series of virtual experiments in order to assess thepotentialoccurrenceofshallowsubsurfaceflowinCambisolsbelow2100mASL.Intheseexperiments we also included the organic layer being highly abundant in the investigationarea,whosehydraulicparameterswereestimatedbymeansofinversenumericalmodelling.Thevirtualexperimentswerebasedonatwodimensionalfiniteelementmodelrepresentingasteepforestedhillslopetransectof~54mlength.Asidesoilproperties,evapotranspirationandinterception,themodelincludedthespatialvariabilityofthesaturatedhydraulicconductivity,thepressureheadandtheirspatialtrends.Theresultsofvirtualexperimentseriesshowthatasoundevidenceofthekeyparametersaforementionedisobligateifprocessconceptualisationregardingshallowsubsurfaceflowgeneration,butalsolandslideinitiation,soluteandmattertransportisinthespotlight.